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The search for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev briefly extended to Mountain Top on Friday as "overly cautious" local, state and federal officers tracked a report of a white van with Massachusetts license plates.

FBI agents, state troopers, Luzerne County sheriff's deputies and local police officers swarmed a grassy triangle on Lake Road in Glen Summit, Fairview Township, after a person reported seeing a white van there with Massachusetts license plates around 5:30 p.m.

Agents closed access to Lake Road for 30 to 45 minutes before ruling out the tip, First Assistant District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said. They never found the supposed van either, he said.

FBI agents responding to the tip were in contact with the bureau's Boston office, which maintained a theory that Tsarnaev had remained in the Boston area, Sanguedolce said.

The vast response in Mountain Top came after an extensive manhunt in the Boston area, where SWAT teams went door-to-door in the suburb of Watertown and officials took the unprecedented step of shutting down public transit and ordering residents to remain locked in their homes.

"Can't take it lightly," Sanguedolce said.

- Michael R. Sisak

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